Pisa vs Florence airports for getting to Siena

Margie, you've done some good homework. A Gold Star for Margie. The Amerigo Vespucci airport in Florence is a bit smaller than the one at Pisa. Yes, there is a bus (Volain bus) that will take you right to the SITA bus station in Florence if that is your next destination. However, Pisa has a train station at the airport. You would change trains at Pisa Centrale and off you go to Empoli and Siena. You didn't indicate if you would be staying over for a day or so in Florence or Pisa or are you just getting off the plane and heading for Pisa. If you are staying for a day, I would suggest that Florence is the better place. For Pisa, I would suggest nearby Lucca. In summary, the train journey from Pisa Airport to Siena will take about 2.5hrs with 2 train changes (Pisa Centrale and Empoli). From Florence, the Volain bus will take about 25 minutes and the SITA Corso Rapide (non-stop express) will get you to Siena in 1hr 15 min. The early flights home are a bummer. Usually, you fly early to a larger hub to take a 10:00am or so larger plane back to the U.S. Actually, we have to do that each time in Sacramento as it's not a large hub. We always have to catch the 6:00am flight to Denver, Chicago or Dallas when we leave on our trips.

Going to Siena we will get off the plane and head straight to our rental apartment. Returning, we will be spending the afternoon and evening in our departure city, before leaving on our early flight. Have never been to Pisa or Florence, but Pisa doesn't seem to offer much other than the obligatory photo holding up the tower.

Margie, you nailed Pisa. In my opinion, nothing there but the tower and the adjacent church and baptistery. My wife and I strolled through a lot of the side streets walking to the leaning tower from the train station and it was just not appealing.

Found Lufthansa tickets into Florence for as cheap as the ones into Pisa, so we are now booked.

I attempted to go to Siena yesterday, and the traffic was horrendous. The hill town is surrounded by apartment complexes, people were everywhere and parking was virtually impossible. We prefer to stay out in the countrysidearound San Gimgnano. I told my wife tonight that the best way to tour Siena would be to catch a bus into the center city for one day. It looks like every farm in Tuscany has been turned into an agriturisimo or bed and breakfastand that's not an exaggeration. There are hundreds and hundreds of places to stay that give a much better travel experience than staying in any city. We did enjoy Certaldo, Volterra and San Gimgnano immensely. Very few Americans are in sight in April, however.

Margie, we have flown Lufthansa from LAX to Florence. They flew us overnight to Frankfurt where we arrived just after 10:00am. We did have a 3hr layover in the domestic terminal before we caught our flight on a smaller plane to Florence. Wonderful flights.

Yes, I did see several places that mentioned that Holy Week was the third busiest week in Siena, second only to the two weeks when they run the races. With even the locals being out, preparing for Good Friday and Easter Sunday, I'm sure it was quite busy. We are hoping to offset that by going in shoulder season when things won't be quite so chaotic. We know this isn't quite as "backdoor" as some of the towns recommended by Rick Steves, but with two little ones along for the ride, we knew that our chance to tour the museums and Duomo would likely be while the kids were napping, so convenience won out a bit more than normal.

Larry, that sounds about right. We are going through Frankfurt both ways, with layover right at two hours. I have never changed flights in Europe before, we've always flown direct, so hoping that leaves us enough time to do what we need to do from a customs standpoint! None of the flights that we were looking at had more than 2:10, so I'm assuming the airlines are comfortable that they can get people processed in that amount of time, so I'm trying to not get hung up on it, since I can't control it.

I would go through Pisa. A much smaller airport. Easy to navigate... Also it has a train station!!!!! and a link to their main train station. You can get your train to Siena without ever leaving the airport. I personally think getting in and out of the Florence airport is a huge headache.

Margie, once you de-plane at Frankfurt, your luggage will appear for immigration. Ours was not touched but I'm sure that could easily change. Our luggage then went on to our transfer flight and we walked through to the domestic terminals. We may have changed buildings but we were inside corridors all the way. At Florence, there was no immigration at all. We simply picked up our luggage and took a taxi to our hotel. For you, I imagine that you may want the Volain bus to take you to the SITA bus terminal. If somehow you end up at the main Florence train station, the SITA bus terminal is about 800'-1,000' from the main Florence train station. You cross at one traffic light and your there. You really can't see it until you pass their driveway. It's shown in the RS book on the Florence pages.